Pilot-aided channel estimation for OFDM in wireless systems

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for pilot-symbol aided channel estimation in a wireless digital communication system which transmits packets of N OFDM data blocks, each data block comprising a set of K orthogonal carrier frequencies. At the transmitter, pilot symbols are inserted into each data packet at known positions so as to occupy predetermined positions in the time-frequency space. At the receiver, the received signal is subject to a two-dimensional inverse Fourier transform, two-dimensional filtering and a two-dimensional Fourier transform to recover the pilot symbols so as to estimate the channel response.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present regular utility patent application claims priority to U.S.provisional patent application No. 60/114,571, filed Dec. 31, 1998.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus forpilot-aided channel estimation for orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexed (OFDM) wireless communication systems. In particular, itconcerns pilot-aided channel estimation techniques employing Fouriertransforms and filtering at the receiver.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a potentialtechnique to transmit high-bit-rate data over indoor and outdoorwireless communication systems. Channel parameter estimation is animportant technique to further improve data transmission performance.There are two different types of channel parameter estimators:decision-directed and pilot-symbol-aided.

Decision-directed parameter estimators have been used in OFDM systemsfor coherent detection, co-channel interference suppression andtransmitter diversity. For systems that are noise limited or with littleco-channel interference, coherent demodulation with estimated channelparameters can be used instead of differential demodulation, and canachieve a 2.5-3.0 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain. Moreover, forsystems with receiver diversity, maximal ratio diversitycombining(MR-DC), which is equivalent to minimum mean-square errordiversity combining(MMSE-DC) in the absence of co-channel interference,can be achieved directly using the estimated channel parameters. Forsystems with co-channel interference, the coefficients for the MMSE-DCcan be calculated from the estimated channel parameters and theinstantaneous correlation of the signals from each receiver. For OFDMsystems with transmitter diversity using space-time codes, channelestimation can provide the necessary information required for thedecoding of the space-time codes.

Pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimation is another type of estimationapproach. Pilot-symbol-aided channel estimation for single carriersystems with fading channels has been analyzed. Both 1-dimensional(1-D), double 1-D, and 2-dimensional (2-D) filtering algorithms havebeen proposed for pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimation for OFDMsystems in terrestrial audio and television broadcasting, fixed andmobile wireless communications. However, the filtering algorithms forpilot-symbol-aided parameter estimation require channel statistics, suchas, the delay profile and the Doppler frequency, which are usuallyunknown in wireless environments. Prior art patents have suggested timeor frequency domain correlation using pilot symbols.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,015 to Higashi et al. is directed topseudo-pilot-symbol aided channel estimation in a single carrier system.At the receiver, the channel transfer function associated with eachpseudo-pilot symbol is estimated and a time-domain interpolation iscarried out to determine the remaining channel transfer functions.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,083 to Wright discloses the use of a periodicallytransmitted pair of pilot symbols spaced apart by a fixed difference ina single-carrier system. The pilot symbols are used to synchronize thetransmitter and receiver and are also used in channel etimation. Onlythe pair of pilot symbols are processed by the channel estimator.Specifically, the channel estimator compares the currentchannel-impaired received pilot symbols with their expected amplitudeand phase, and the average amplitude and phase distortion is used toestimate the effects of the channel. Average estimates obtained overmultiple such periods are then interpolated or otherwise filtered togenerate symbol-specific amplitude and phase adjustments to apply to thechannel-impaired data symbols. However, this technique does not addressthe issue of OFDM communication and does not account for thesimultaneous effect of Doppler and multipathing.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,376 to Castelain et al. is directed to pilot-aidedchannel parameter estimation in an OFDM system. Pilot symbols arebroadcast using higher power than the remaining symbols in a datastream. At the receiver, the noisy channel parameters are subject to aninverse DFT, weighting and thresholding so as to focus on the pilotsymbols, and the result is then subjected to a DFT. While Castelain '376provides frequency domain interpolation, it does not perform this in thetime-domain. Therefore, this technique does not provide channelestimates which are robust to both Doppler and delay profiles due tomultipathing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to realizing robust parameterestimation for a channel in a synchronized OFDM communication systemwhich is robust to both Doppler and multipathing. At the transmitter,pilot symbols are selectively inserted in predetermined frequency bins(tones) of each of a number of OFDM blocks, and a plurality of such OFDMblocks are sequentially broadcast. At a receiver antenna, the pluralityof OFDM blocks are processed, and the resulting signal used to form anoisy two-dimensional channel estimate, one dimension corresponding to afrequency index of the OFDM tones within each block and a seconddimension corresponding to a time index of each OFDM block. The noisytwo-dimensional channel estimate is then subject to two 2-D Fouriertransforms, and a diamond-shaped filter between them, thereby producinga noise-reduced channel estimate.

An additional facet of the present invention is that it may be adaptedfor use in mobile or diversity receivers having a plurality of receivingantennas. In such case, signals received at the various antennas areused to form a single channel estimate which is then used to combine thesignals to arrive at an optimum estimate of the transmitted signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention can better be understood through the attachedfigures in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a transmitter in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a receiver in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a channel estimator in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 4a shows a sample pilot symbol grid used for a system in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 4b shows the contour of a 2-D spectrum for the sample pilot symbolgrid of FIG. 4a;

FIGS. 5a and 5 b compare the effects on word error rate (WER) and themean squared error (MSE) of different reference signals.

FIGS. 6a and 6 b compare the effects on the WER and the MSE of usinginitial and the enhanced estimates for different channel models under a40 Hz Doppler condition.

FIGS. 7a and 7 b compare the effects on the WER and the MSE of usinginitial and the enhanced estimates for different channel models under a200 Hz Doppler condition.

FIGS. 8a and 8 b shows the effects on the WER of using different Dopplershifts for a TU channel model (FIG. 8a) and a HT channel model (FIG.8b).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,307,376, 5,692,015 and 5,809,083 areincorporated by reference herein.

FIG. 1 shows an OFDM transmitter 100 in accordance with the presentinvention. A signal b[n,k] in which the indices k and n represent thek^(th) tone of the n^(th) block of an OFDM sequence, respectively, ispresented to an encoder 102. The encoded signal a[n,k] is then presentedto the modulator 104. In the preferred embodiment, since the phase ofeach tone can be obtained by the estimator, coherent phase-shift keying(PSK) modulation is used to enhance the system performance. Themodulated signal x[n,k] is then subject to an inverse fast Fouriertransform (IFFT) 106 before being broadcast by an antenna 108, inaccordance with well-established techniques for OFDM transmissionprotocol.

Before it is broadcast, signal x[n,k] has embedded therein a pluralityof pilot symbols which have been added by a pilot symbol insertion block110. Pilot symbol insertion may take place just before modulation 104,as indicated by the solid line 110 a, or it may take place just beforeencoding 102, as indicated by the broken line 110 b. Regardless of theparticular stage within the transmitter that pilot symbols are inserted,the positions of the pilot symbols in the resulting sequence of OFDMblocks is important in the present invention, as discussed furtherbelow.

FIG. 2 shows a receiver 120 in accordance with the present invention.The receiver 120 is provided with a plurality of antennas 122 a,122 b.The received signal at antennas 122 a, 122 b is subjected to a fastFourier transform (FFT) 124 a, 124 b to thereby produce respectivechannel-corrupted signals x₁[n,k], x₂[n,k] on lines 125 a, 125 b. Whiletwo antennas and two signals are shown, it should be kept in mind thatany number p of such antennas may be present in a mobile diversityreceiver. It should also be noted that a channel estimator in accordancewith the present invention will work even if only a single antenna isused.

The received signals x_(m)[n,k] are sent on to a channel estimator 126to estimate channel parameters. The estimated channel parameters, inturn, are used in combination with the received signals in a diversitycombiner 128 to form a combined signal y[n,k]. Combined signal y[n,k] isthen subjected to a thresholder 130 to thereby produce an estimate ofthe demodulated signal â[n,k]. The estimate of the demodulated signalâ[n,k] is input to a decoder 132 to thereby produce an estimate of thedecoded signal {circumflex over (b)}[n,k]. The estimate of thedemodulated signal â[n, k] is also input to the channel estimator torefine the estimate of the combined signal y[n,k]. Alternatively, in theevent that the pilot symbols were inserted before encoding at thetransmitter 100, the decoded signal {circumflex over (b)}[n,k] may beused in place of the estimate of the demodulated signal, as indicated bythe broken line in FIG. 2.

In general, for a diversity receiver such as that shown in FIG. 2, thesignal from the m^(th) antenna at the k^(th) tone of the n^(th) blockcan be expressed as:

x _(m) [n,k]=H _(m) [n,k]a[n,k]+w _(m) [n,k]  (Eq. 1)

In the above expression, w_(m)[n,k] is additive Gaussian noise from them^(th) antenna (m=1, 2, 3, . . . , p) at the k^(th) tone of the n^(th)OFDM block having zero-mean and variance ρ. It is also assumed thatw_(m)[n,k]'s are independent for different n's, k's and m's, i.e., foreach antenna, the noise has the same statistics at all tones k in eachOFDM block n. H_(m)[n,k] is the frequency response at the k^(th) tone ofthe n^(th) block corresponding to the m^(th) antenna, and is assumed tobe independent for different m's but with the same statistics. Finally,a[n,k] is the signal modulating the k^(th) tone during the n^(th) blockand is assumed to have unit variance and be independent for differentk's and n's.

If the transmitted symbols for some k's and n's are known at thereceiver, the channel parameters corresponding to these k's and n's(“initial channel parameters”) can be estimated by:

{tilde over (H)} _(m) [n,k]Δx _(m) [n,k]a*[n,k]=H[n,k]+{overscore (w)}_(m) [n,k]  (Eq. 2)

where {overscore (w)}_(m)[n,k]=w_(m)[n,k]a*[n,k].

From the temporal estimation of the channel parameters for some k's andn's, a robust interpolator can be derived to estimate the channelparameters for all k's and n's, even if the channel statistics areunknown.

The receiver 120 further includes a channel estimator 140 which firstcalculates the noisy channel estimates {tilde over (H)}_(m)[n,k] andfurther processes the noisy channel estimates to arrive at anoise-reduced channel estimate Ĥ_(m)[n,k] in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a channel estimator 140 in accordancewith the present invention. The channel estimator includes a multiplier142 which calculates the noisy channel estimate {tilde over(H)}_(m)[[n,k] from a received signal x_(m)[n,k] on line 142 a and aselected reference signal a*[n,k] received on line 142 b from switch144. When the receiver is processing the first sequence of OFDM blocks,the reference signal is selected to be the known pilot symbols forcertain n's and k's transmitted by the transmitter in this synchronizedcommunication system. In such case, the known pilot symbols areretrieved from a local pilot symbol memory 146 associated with thereceiver. When the receiver is processing a subsequent sequence of OFDMblocks, the reference signal is the estimate of the demodulated signalâ[n,k] or, alternatively, the estimate of the decoded signal {circumflexover (b)}[n,k]. It should be understood here that multiplier 142 andswitch 144 are preferably implemented in software.

The noisy channel estimate {tilde over (H)}_(m)[n,k] is sent on to adelay and formatting device 148. Here, noisy channel estimates for all Kfrequencies of N successive OFDM blocks are assembled into atwo-dimensional array {tilde over (G)}_(m)[n₁,n₂] wherein m₁ denotes thefrequency index and n₂ the time index. In the array, each OFDM blockoccupies a single row with the corresponding frequencies being alignedalong the columns with the row number of the OFDM blocks correspondingto the time sequence in which the OFDM blocks were received. Theformatter 148 then zero-pads both the rows and the columns, if needed,so that each has a number of elements that is a power of two.

The two-dimensional array {tilde over (G)}_(m)[n₁,n₂] is then sent on toa 2-D IFFT unit 150 where a two-dimensional transform is performed toform Ĝ_(m)[f₁,f₂]. The output of the IFFT unit 150 is sent on for“frequency domain” filtering by multiplying by a filter 152 to formĜ_(m)[f₁,f₂]. The output of the filter 152 is then sent on to a 2-D FFTunit 154 to form Ĝ_(m)[n₁,n₂] from which one can extract thenoise-reduced channel estimates Ĥ_(m)[n,k].

Since the 2-D spectrum is usually of a diamond shape, a diamond shapefilter is preferably used to filter out the additive noise which oftenoccupies the 2-D region corresponding to high Doppler and high timedelay. The area of the diamond is designed to match the maximum delayspread and Doppler frequency. Consequently, the estimation performanceis insensitive to different delay profiles and Doppler frequencies, andso provides a robust estimator.

In view of the foregoing, it is evident that, initially, from the pilotsymbols, one can obtain temporal estimated channel parameterscorresponding to the pilot symbol positions. Then the channel parameterscorresponding to the other positions are obtained by interpolation usinga 2-D IFFT, filtering and a 2-D FFT. In the present estimator, the 2-Dtransforms and the multiplication are preferably performed using DSPchips, dedicated hardware, or the like. For instance, a single DSP chipcan perform both 2-D FFTs.

With the estimated channel parameters Ĥ_(m)[n,k], a minimum mean squarediversity combiner 128 can be used to combine the received signalsx_(m)[n,k] to estimate the combined signal as: $\begin{matrix}{{y\left\lbrack {n,k} \right\rbrack} = \frac{\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{p}\quad {{{\hat{H}}_{m}^{*}\left\lbrack {n,k} \right\rbrack}\quad {x_{m}\left\lbrack {n,k} \right\rbrack}}}{\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{p}\quad {{{\hat{H}}_{m}\left\lbrack {n,k} \right\rbrack}}^{2}}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 3} \right)\end{matrix}$

The operation of the receiver 120 may now be explained with reference tothe above equations and the channel estimator 140. As discussed above,the transmitter 100 and receiver 120 are synchronized so as to permitcoherent signal detection. Therefore, the receiver knows the positionsof the pilot symbols in any given OFDM block. During the firsttransmission of a sequence of OFDM blocks, the receiver uses only theknown pilot symbol positions in the received signals x_(m)[n,k], alongwith the known amplitudes and phases of the pilot symbols. During thisfirst transmission, the receiver calculates a noisy estimate of thechannel parameters in accordance with Eq. 2 to create {tilde over(H)}_(m)[n,k] for just the known pilot symbol positions in the firstsequence of OFDM blocks. A two-dimensional matrix {tilde over(G)}₁[n₁,n₂] comprising the calculated noisy channel parameters for theknown pilot symbol positions, and zero-padded values for the remainingpositions is formed. Matrix {tilde over (G)}₁[n₁,n₂ ] is subjected to anIFFT, a diamond-shaped filter and an FFT to form the filtered channelestimation matrix Ĝ₁[n₁,n₂ ] which comprises the initial noise-reducedchannel estimates Ĥ_(m)[n,k] received at the m^(th) antenna. Thenoise-reduced initial channel estimates are then used in Eq. 3 toestimate the combined signal y₁[n,k] and the demodulated signal â₁[n,k].

For a subsequent sequence of OFDM blocks, the receiver calculates anoisy enhanced channel estimate in accordance with Eq. 2 to create{tilde over (H)}_(m)[n,k] using the m received signals x_(m)[n,k] andthe values of the estimated demodulated signal, rather than for only then's and k's corresponding to the known pilot symbols. The same 2-Dmatrix is formed and subjected to an IFFT, a diamond filter and aninverse FFT to provide the noise-reduced enhanced channel estimatesĤ_(m)[n,k] for submission to Eq. 3, as before.

After the initial channel estimate has been calculated, the positions ofthe pilot symbols do not solely determine the data that is used incalculating the enhanced channel estimates. Instead, the entireestimated demodulated signal is used in this calculation, and thechannel estimate is optimum for that transmission. If, however, atransmission of a first set of sequences of OFDM blocks has concluded,and there is a time delay before a second set is transmitted, thepreviously estimated demodulated signal may not be suitable for use inthe calculation of Eq. 2. In such case, for the second set oftransmissions, it may be desirable to calculate a noise-reduced initialchannel estimate using only the positions of the pilot symbols asexplained above, and thereafter use the estimated demodulated signal forthe subsequent noise-reduced enhanced channel estimates.

In the present invention, at the OFDM transmitter, the pilot symbols areselectively inserted at predetermined tones in members of a sequence, orpacket, of OFDM blocks. More particularly, the pilot symbol inserter 110is configured to insert pilot symbols into successive OFDM blocks suchthat a predetermined pattern is produced on a two-dimensional gridformed from several rows of OFDM blocks, each row comprising the K tonesof a corresponding block, each column comprising the signal at aparticular tone for each of N OFDM blocks, with adjacent rowscorresponding to adjacent OFDM blocks in the time domain. The placementof the pilot symbols is considered next.

As discussed in P. Hoeher, S. Kaiser and P. Robertson, “Two-dimensionalpilot-symbol-aided channel estimation by Wiener filtering”, Proc. of1997 IEEE International Conf. of Acoustics, Speech and SignalProcessing, Munich, Germany, April 1997, pp 1845-1848 [1], and in P.Hoeher, S. Kaiser and P. Robertson, “Pilot-symbol-aided channelestimation in time and frequency”, Proc. of 1997 IEEE Global Telecomm.Conf: Comm. The. Mini-Conf, Phoenix, Ariz., November 1997, pp 90-96 [2],the grid density of the pilot symbols must satisfy the 2-D samplingtheorem in order to recover channel parameters. For an OFDM signal,then, this means that the following must be satisfied:

f_(dmax) T _(f) M _(t)≦½; τ_(max) ΔfM _(f)≦½  (Eq. 4)

where f_(dmax) and τ_(max) are the maximum expected Doppler shift andmaximum expected time delay, respectively; T_(f) and Δ_(f) represent theblock length and the tone spacing, respectively, and M_(t) and M_(f)denote the spaces between the time and frequency domains, respectively.It is suggested in the aforementioned articles that a twice oversamplingrate for the pilot symbols be used to suppress channel noise and improvethe estimation performance at the expense of reduced efficiency of thedata transmission.

In the aforementioned articles by P. Hoeher, S. Kaiser and P. Robertson,the authors studied parameter interpolation using Wiener filtering orthe MMSE interpolation. These approaches to interpolation requireinformation about the channel statistics. This contrasts with thepresent invention which provides for robust interpolation that isinsensitive to channel statistics. The 2-D FFT and IFFT can be used toimplement robust interpolation and reduce the computational complexity.However, in order to reduce edge effects, square-root raised cosineextensions are used on the edges of the 2-D signal, as disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 5,357,502, whose contents are also incorporated by referenceherein.

For wireless systems with packet data transmission, each packet mayconsist of only a few OFDM blocks. Therefore, the channel time-domainspectrum will be spread. For the same reason, the frequency-domainspectrum will also be spread due to a finite number of tones in eachOFDM block. One may therefore increase the number of pilot symbols toreduce spectral aliasing at the expense of reduced efficiency of thedata transmission. However, for a given rate of pilot symbols, we mayalso improve performance by the choice of the pilot symbol grid shape.

A rectangular grid shape in which pilot symbols are insertedperiodically at the same tones in each of a number OFDM blocks is lesspreferable because such pattern does not efficiently capture variationin both the time delay and Doppler. In the present invention, onepreferably uses a non-rectangular grid shape to take advantage of thetwo-dimensional filtering that is used in the estimator. The 2-Dspectrum of a regular, non-rectangular pilot grid is discussed in thearticle R. M. Mersereau and T. C. Speake, “The Processing ofPeriodically Sampled Multidimensional Signals”, IEEE Trans. on SignalProcessing, vol. 31, pp. 188-194, February 1983 [3].

FIG. 4a shows a sample non-rectangular pilot symbol grid and FIG. 4bshows its corresponding 2-D spectrum contour. As seen in FIG. 4a, thepilot symbols are not necessarily inserted into adjacent rows, i.e.,successive OFDM blocks. In addition, the pilot symbols in one OFDM blockdo not occupy the same tones as the pilot symbols in a nearby OFDMblock, but rather arc staggered relative thereto, thereby providing thenon-rectangular pilot-symbol grid pattern. One skilled in the art willrecognize from FIG. 4b that if a rectangular pilot symbol grid is used,there will be aliasing of its 2-D spectrum.

Theoretical Performance

As indicated above, with pilot symbols, temporal estimation of thecorresponding parameters can be obtained. The channel parameterscorresponding to the regular symbols (unknown data) can be obtained byinterpolation. The optimum interpolation is determined by the channelstatistics that are usually difficult to obtain since they depend on theenvironment and vehicle speed. We now demonstrate that the presentinvention results in a robust interpolator.

MMSE Interpolation. The channel parameter H[p₁,p₂], which is atwo-dimensional sequence, will be written as H[p] for simplicity, wherepΔ(p₁,p₂)^(τ) denotes a 2-element integer vector. From now on, thesubscript m for antenna is omitted since the channel estimators are thesame for different antennas. From the pilot symbols with any regulargrid, we can get temporal estimation of the channel parameters,

{tilde over (H)}[Vp]=H[Vp]+{overscore (ω)}[Vp],  (Eq. 5)

for all p, where V is a non-singular 2×2 matrix that is determined bythe pilot symbol grid. For the grid shown in FIG. 3(a),

$\begin{matrix}{V = {\begin{pmatrix}2 & 5 \\2 & 0\end{pmatrix}.}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 6} \right)\end{matrix}$

For any 2-element integer vector n=(n₁,n₂)^(T), there is a unique pairof p and r∈I (where I is a set of |det(V)|2-element integer vectorsdetermined by V), such that

n=Vp+r  (Eq.7)

From the temporal estimation, H[n], for any n, can be estimated by$\begin{matrix}{{{\hat{H}\lbrack n\rbrack} = {{\sum\limits_{p}}_{o}\quad {{c\left\lbrack {r + {V\quad \left( {p - p_{o}} \right)}} \right\rbrack}\quad {\overset{\sim}{H}\left\lbrack {Vp}_{o} \right\rbrack}}}},} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 8} \right)\end{matrix}$

where the c[n]'s are two-dimensional coefficients. Using theorthogonality principle, the coefficients for the MMSE estimator aredetermined by solving $\begin{matrix}{E\left\{ {{\left. \left( {{H\lbrack n\rbrack} - {{\sum\limits_{p}}_{o}\quad {{c\left\lbrack {r + {V\quad \left( {p - p_{o}} \right)}} \right\rbrack}\quad {\overset{\sim}{H}\left\lbrack {Vp}_{o} \right\rbrack}\quad {{\overset{\sim}{H}}^{*}\left\lbrack {Vp}_{l} \right\rbrack}}}} \right. \right\} = 0},} \right.} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 9} \right)\end{matrix}$

for all p₁, or $\begin{matrix}{{{r\left\lbrack {{Vp} + r} \right\rbrack} = {{\sum\limits_{p}}_{o}\quad {{c\left\lbrack {r + {V\quad \left( {p - p_{o}} \right)}} \right\rbrack}\quad \left( {{r\left\lbrack {V\quad \rho_{o}} \right\rbrack} + {\rho \quad {\delta \left\lbrack p_{o} \right\rbrack}}} \right)}}},} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 10} \right)\end{matrix}$

where

ρ=E{{overscore (ω)}[Vp]| ²}

Denote $\begin{matrix}{{{R\quad \left( {r,\omega} \right)}\overset{\Delta}{=}{\sum\limits_{p}\quad {{r\left\lbrack {{Vp} + r} \right\rbrack}\quad ^{{- j}\quad \omega^{T}\quad {Vp}}}}},} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 11} \right) \\{{{C\quad \left( {r,\omega} \right)}\overset{\Delta}{=}{\sum\limits_{p}\quad {{c\left\lbrack {{Vp} + r} \right\rbrack}\quad ^{{- j}\quad \omega^{T}\quad {Vp}}}}},} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 12} \right)\end{matrix}$

where ω=(ω₁, ω₂)^(T). Then, (10) can be expressed in the frequencydomain as

R(r,ω)=C(r,ω)(R(0,ω)+ρ).  (Eq. 13)

Therefore, $\begin{matrix}{{C\quad \left( {r,\omega} \right)} = {\frac{R\quad \left( {r,\omega} \right)}{{R\quad \left( {0,\omega} \right)} + \rho}.}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 14} \right)\end{matrix}$

Let R(ω) be the 2-D Fourier transform of r[n] defined as $\begin{matrix}{{{R\quad (\omega)} = {\sum\limits_{n}\quad {{r\lbrack n\rbrack}\quad ^{{- j}\quad \omega^{T}\quad n}}}},} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 15} \right)\end{matrix}$

Then, we have $\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{R\quad \left( {r,\omega} \right)} = \quad {\sum\limits_{p}\quad {{r\left\lbrack {{Vp} + r} \right\rbrack}\quad ^{{- j}\quad \omega^{T}\quad {Vp}}}}} \\{= \quad {\sum\limits_{p}\quad {\left\{ {\frac{1}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}\quad}\quad {\int_{- \pi}^{\pi}{\int_{- \pi}^{\pi}{R\quad \left( \omega_{o} \right)\quad ^{j\quad \omega_{o}^{T}\quad {({{Vp} + r})}}\quad {\omega_{1}^{0}}\quad {\omega_{2}^{0}}}}}} \right\} \quad ^{j\quad \omega^{T}\quad {Vp}}}}} \\{{= \quad {\frac{1}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}\quad}{\int_{- \pi}^{\pi}{\int_{- \pi}^{\pi}{R\quad \left( \omega_{o} \right)\quad \left\{ {\sum\limits_{p}\quad ^{{- j}\quad {({\omega - \omega_{o}})}^{T}\quad {Vp}}} \right\} \quad ^{j\quad \omega_{o}^{T}\quad r}\quad {\omega_{1}^{0}}\quad {\omega_{2}^{0}}}}}}},}\end{matrix} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 16} \right)\end{matrix}$

with ω₀=(ω₁ ⁰,ω₂ ⁰). Since, $\begin{matrix}{{\sum\limits_{p}\quad ^{{- j}\quad {({\omega - \omega_{o}})}^{T}\quad {Vp}}} = {\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}\quad {\sum\limits_{p}\quad {\delta \quad {\left( {{V^{T}\quad \omega} - {V^{T}\quad \omega_{o}} - {2\quad \pi \quad p}} \right).}}}}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 17} \right)\end{matrix}$

Then, $\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{R\quad \left( {r,\omega} \right)} = \quad {\frac{1}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}\quad}\quad {\int_{- \pi}^{\pi}{\int_{- \pi}^{\pi}{R\quad \left( \omega_{o} \right)\quad \left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}\quad {\sum\limits_{P \in Z^{2}}\quad {\delta \quad \left( {{V^{T}\quad \omega} -} \right.}}}}}}} \\{{\quad \left. {{V^{T}\quad \omega_{o}} - {2\quad \pi \quad p}} \right)}\quad ^{j\quad \omega^{T}\quad r}\quad {\omega_{1}^{0}}\quad {\omega_{2}^{0}}} \\{= \quad {\frac{1}{{{\det \quad (V)}}_{\omega - {2\quad \pi \quad j}}}\quad {\sum\limits_{p \in {\lbrack{{- \pi},\pi}\rbrack}^{2}}\quad {R\quad \left( {\omega - {2\quad \pi \quad {Up}}} \right)\quad ^{j\quad {({\omega - {2\quad \pi \quad {Up}}})}^{T}\quad r}}}}}\end{matrix} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 18} \right)\end{matrix}$

with U=V¹.

From (18), we have that   (E  q.  19) $\begin{matrix}{{C\quad (\omega)}\overset{\Delta}{=}\quad {\sum\limits_{r \in I}\quad {C\quad \left( {r,\omega} \right)\quad ^{{- j}\quad \omega^{T}\quad r}}}} \\{= \quad {\sum\limits_{r \in I}\quad {\frac{1}{{{\det \quad (V)}}_{\omega - {2\quad \pi \quad {Up}}}}\quad {\sum\limits_{\in {\lbrack{{- \pi},\pi}\rbrack}^{2}}\quad {\frac{R\quad \left( {\omega - {2\quad \pi \quad {Up}}} \right)\quad ^{j\quad {({\omega - {2\quad \pi \quad {({Up})}^{T}}})}\quad r}}{{R\quad \left( {0,\omega} \right)} + \rho}\quad ^{j\quad \omega^{T}\quad r}}}}}} \\{= \quad {\frac{1}{{{\det \quad (V)}}_{\omega - {2\quad \pi \quad {Up}}}}\quad {\sum\limits_{\in {\lbrack{{- \pi},\pi}\rbrack}^{2}}\quad {\frac{R\quad \left( {\omega - {2\quad \pi \quad {Up}}} \right)}{{R\quad \left( {0,\omega} \right)} + \rho}\quad {\sum\limits_{r \in I}{^{j\quad 2\quad \pi \quad {({Up})}^{T}\quad r}.}}}}}}\end{matrix}$

It can be proven from the property of I that $\begin{matrix}{{\sum\limits_{r \in I}\quad ^{{- j}\quad 2\quad \pi \quad {({Up})}^{T}\quad r}} = \left\{ \begin{matrix}{{{\det \quad (V)},}} & {{{{if}\quad p} = \left( {0,0} \right)^{T}},} \\{0,} & {{otherwise}.}\end{matrix} \right.} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 20} \right)\end{matrix}$

Consequently, $\begin{matrix}{{C\quad (\omega)} = {\frac{R\quad (\omega)}{{R\quad \left( {0,\omega} \right)} + \rho}.}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 21} \right)\end{matrix}$

If the pilot symbols are dense enough to make R(r,ω) alias-free, then${R\quad \left( {0,\omega} \right)} = \frac{R\quad (\omega)}{{\det \quad (V)}}$

within the non-zero support of R(ω) and $\begin{matrix}{{{C\quad (\omega)} = \frac{R\quad (\omega)}{\frac{R\quad (\omega)}{{\det \quad (V)}} + \rho}},} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 22} \right)\end{matrix}$

which implies that the optimum parameter interpolator can be determinedonce the channel statistics are known.

Mean-Square Error (MSE). The MSE for the optimum interpolation can befound by   (Eq.  23) $\begin{matrix}{{mse}_{o} = \quad {E\left\{ {{{h\left\lbrack {{Vp} + r} \right\rbrack} - {\sum\limits_{p_{o} \in Z^{2}}{{c\left\lbrack {r,{V\quad \left( {p - p_{o}} \right)}} \right\rbrack}\quad {\overset{\sim}{h}\left\lbrack {Vp}_{o} \right\rbrack}}}}}^{2} \right\}}} \\{= \quad {E\left\{ {{h\left\lbrack {{Vp} + r} \right\rbrack} - {\sum\limits_{p_{o} \in Z^{2}}{{c\left\lbrack {r,{V\quad \left( {p - p_{o}} \right)}} \right\rbrack}\quad {\overset{\sim}{h}\left\lbrack {Vp}_{o} \right\rbrack}\quad {h^{*}\left\lbrack {{Vp} + r} \right\rbrack}}}} \right\}}} \\{= \quad {{r\lbrack 0\rbrack} - {\sum\limits_{p_{o} \in Z^{2}}{{c\left\lbrack {r,{V\quad \left( p_{o} \right)}} \right\rbrack}\quad {r^{*}\left\lbrack {{Vp}_{o} + r} \right\rbrack}}}}} \\{= \quad {1 - {\frac{1}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad {\int_{- \pi}^{\pi}{\int_{- \pi}^{\pi}{\frac{{{R\quad \left( {r,\omega} \right)}}^{2}}{{R\quad \left( {0,\omega} \right)} + \rho}\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {{\omega_{2}}.}}}}}}}\end{matrix}$

If the pilot symbols satisfy the alias-free condition, then|R(r,ω)|²=|R(0, ω)|². Furthermore, there are |det(V)| replicas of$\frac{1}{{\det \quad (V)}}\quad R\quad (\omega)$

within [−π,π]×[−π,π]. Let the non-zero support of R(ω) be D with area S,then   (Eq.  24) $\begin{matrix}{{mse}_{o} = \quad {\frac{{\det \quad (V)}}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{\frac{{{R\quad \left( {0,\omega} \right)}}^{2}}{{R\quad \left( {0,\omega} \right)} + \rho}\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}}} \\{= \quad {{\frac{1}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{R\quad (\omega)\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}} - {\frac{{\det \quad (V)}}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{\frac{\frac{R\quad (\omega)}{{{\det \quad (V)}}^{2}}}{\frac{R\quad (\omega)}{{\det \quad (V)}} + \rho}\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}}}} \\{{= \quad {\frac{\rho}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{\frac{{R\quad (\omega)}\quad}{\frac{R\quad (\omega)}{{\det \quad (V)}} + \rho}{\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}}}\quad}\end{matrix}$

If R(ω) is ideal low-pass, that is $\begin{matrix}{{R_{r}\quad (\omega)} = \left\{ {\begin{matrix}\frac{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}{S} & {{{{if}\quad \left( {\omega_{1},\omega_{2}} \right)^{T}} \in D},} \\{0,} & {{otherwise},}\end{matrix}\quad {then}} \right.} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 25} \right) \\{{mse}_{r} = \frac{\rho}{\frac{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}{S\quad {{\det \quad (V)}}} + \rho}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 26} \right)\end{matrix}$

For any R(ω) with non-zero support D and satisfying $\begin{matrix}{{\frac{1}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{R\quad (\omega)\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}} = 1} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 27} \right)\end{matrix}$

we have $\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{mse}_{o} = \quad {{\rho \quad \frac{S}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad \frac{1}{S}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{R\quad \frac{(\omega)}{\frac{R\quad (\omega)}{\quad {{\det \quad (V)}}} + \rho}\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}} \leq}} \\{\quad {\rho \quad \frac{1}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad \frac{\frac{1}{S}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{R\quad (\omega)\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}}{{\frac{1}{S}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{R\quad \frac{(\omega)}{\quad {{\det \quad (V)}}}\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}} + \rho}}} \\{{= \quad {\frac{\rho}{\frac{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}{S\quad {{\det \quad (V)}}} + \rho} = {mse}_{r}}},}\end{matrix} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 28} \right)\end{matrix}$

where we have used the fact that $\frac{x}{x + \rho}$

is a convex function for ×>0. The inequality (28) implies that of allR(ω) with non-zero support D, the channel with the ideal bandlimited 2-Dspectrum has the worst performance.

Robust interpolation. The MMSE interpolation derived in the previoussection requires channel statistics that are usually unknown since itchanges with the environment and vehicle speed. Hence, a robustinterpolator that is independent of the channel statistics is desired.

For an interpolator matching the 2-D spectrum R(ω) and a channel with2-D spectrum {overscore (R)}(ω), the MSE of the interpolator will be$\begin{matrix}{{mse} = {{\frac{\sigma^{4}}{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}\quad {\int{\int_{D}{\frac{{\overset{\_}{R}\quad (\omega)} - {R\quad (\omega)}}{\left( {\frac{R\quad (\omega)}{{\det \quad (V)}} + \rho} \right)^{2}}\quad {\omega_{1}}\quad {\omega_{2}}}}}} + {{mse}_{o}.}}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 29} \right)\end{matrix}$

The first term in the above equation is the MSE increment due to themismatch of the channel statistics and the estimator. However, ifR(ω)=R_(r)(ω) then mse=mse_(o) and the performance of the interpolatordoes not depend on the channel statistics. We call the interpolator thatmatches R_(r)(ω) a robust interpolator. The robust interpolator can beshown as in FIG. 3. Since the 2-D spectrum is usually of a diamondshape, a diamond shape filter is used to filter out the additive noise.

Enhanced parameter estimation. If an M times oversampling rate is usedfor the pilot symbols, then S=(2π)²/M and from Eq. (26), the MSE of therobust channel estimator will be $\begin{matrix}{{mse}_{r} = {\frac{\rho}{M + \rho} \approx \frac{\rho}{M}}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 30} \right)\end{matrix}$

An enhanced channel parameter estimation algorithm as discussed in Y.(Geoffrey) Li an N. Sollenberger, “Interference suppression in OFDMsystems using adaptive antenna arrays”, 1998 Global Telecomm. Conf.:Comm. The. Mini-Conf, Sydney, Australia, November 1998 [4], can be usedhere to improve the performance of the channel parameter estimation.Based on the initial parameter estimation using the pilot symbols, thetransmitted symbols can be coherently detected, and therefore thetemporal estimation for all k's and n's can be obtained with the help ofthe detected symbols. Better parameter estimation can then be obtainedfrom the temporal parameter estimator. If all detected symbols arecorrect, then from (26) the MSE of the enhanced parameter estimator is$\begin{matrix}{{mse}_{e} = {\frac{\rho}{\frac{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}{S} + \rho} \approx {\frac{\rho}{\frac{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}{S}}.}}} & \left( {{Eq}.\quad 31} \right)\end{matrix}$

Since $\frac{\left( {2\quad \pi} \right)^{2}}{S}$

is usually much larger than M, the enhanced estimation can significantlyimprove the system performance even though there are symbol detectionerrors and edge effects, as demonstrated by the simulations describedbelow.

The simulation uses channels having one of three delay profiles: (1) thetwo-ray delay profile of Y. (Geoffrey) Li, J. H Winters and N. R.Sollenberger, “Spatial-temporal equalization for IS-136 TDMA systemswith rapid dispersive fading and co-channel interference”, IEEE Trans.on Veh. Tech., to be published [5]; (2) typical-urban (TU) delay profileand (3) hilly-terrain (HT) delay profile, both discussed in Y.(Geoffrey) Li, N. Seshadri and S. Ariyavisitakul, “Transmitter diversityin OFDM systems with dispersive fading channels”, presented at 1998 IEEEGlobal Telecomm. Conf., Sydney Australia, November 1998 [6] and also inY. (Geoffrey) Li, N. Seshadri and S. Ariyavisitakul, “Channel estimationfor transmitter diversity in OFDM systems with mobile wirelesschannels”, IEEE J-SAC Wireless Comm. Series, to be published [7]. Eachof the three delay profiles was considered with both 40 Hz and 200 HzDoppler frequencies. The channels corresponding to different receivershave the same statistics and two antennas are used for receiverdiversity.

The parameters for the OFDM system are the same as those in Y.(Geoffrey) Li, L. Cimini and N. Sollenberger, “Robust Channel Estimationfor OFDM systems with rapid dispersive fading channels”, IEEE Trans. onComm., vol. 46, pp. 902-915, July 1998 [8]. To construct an OFDM signal,assume the entire channel bandwidth, 800 kHz, is divided into 128 tones.The 4 tones on each end are used as guard tones, and the rest (120tones) are used to transmit data. To make the tones orthogonal to eachother, the symbol duration is 160 μsec. An additional 40 μsec guardinterval is used to provide protection from intersymbol interference dueto channel multipath delay spread. This results in a total block lengthT=200 μsec and a subchannel symbol rate r_(b)=kbaud.

PSK modulation with coherent demodulation is used. As in reference [8],a (40,20) R-S code, with each code symbol consisting of 3 QPSK symbolsgrouped in frequency, is used in the system. The R-S decoder erases 10symbols based on the signal strength and corrects 5 additional randomerrors. The system is in packet transmission mode with each packetcontaining 10 OFDM blocks. Pilot symbols are inserted in the system at a10% rate with the grid shown in FIG. 4a. Hence, the simulated system cantransmit data at 1.08 Mbits/sec before decoding, or 540 kbits/sec afterdecoding, over an 800 kHz channel. To get insight into the averagebehavior of the channel estimator, the performance was averaged over10,000 OFDM blocks.

Effects of Different References on System Performance

FIGS. 5a and 5 b show the effects of different references on the worderror rate (WER) and the mean squared error (MSE) of the OFDM systemwith the TU channel and 40 Hz Doppler frequency. From these figures,when 10% pilot symbols are used for initial estimation, the MSE of theestimated parameters is almost the same as the system's SNR. Therequired SNR's for 10% and 1% WER's are about 8 dB and 11.2 dB,respectively. When the decisioned (sliced) symbols along with the pilotsymbols are used to enhance the channel parameter estimation, theperformance of parameter estimation can be improved significantly, andthe MSE of the enhanced estimator is reduced from −10 dB to −15.5 dBwhen SNR=10 dB. The required SNR's for 10% and 1% WER's are improved byabout 1.4 dB. If the undecoded/decoded dual mode reference introduced inreference [8] is used, another 0.3 dB SNR improvement can be obtained.However, when an ideal reference is used for channel parameterestimation, the system performance is much better than that of initialor enhanced channel parameter estimation.

Parameter Estimation Performance Under Different Environments

FIGS. 6a, 6 b and 7 a, 7 b show the performance of the initial andenhanced parameter estimators for channels with the two-ray (having adelay span of 5 μsec), TU, and HT delay profiles and 40 Hz and 200 HzDoppler frequencies, respectively. From the figures, the system with apilot-symbol-aided estimator is very robust to Doppler shift, and thereare almost no performance degradations for the two-ray and TU channelsand only 0.3 dB SNR degradation for the HT channel if f_(d) is increasedfrom 40 Hz to 200 Hz. The OFDM system for the two-ray and TU channelshas almost the same performance, which is better than the system for theHT channel. The required SNR for a 10% WER is 7 dB for the two-ray andTU channels and about 8 dB for the HT channel.

Comparison With Decision-directed Estimator Under Noise-limitedPerformance

FIGS. 8a and 8 b compare the pilot-symbol-aided and thedecision-directed (see Reference [8]) estimators for an OFDM system withthe TU and HT channels and 40 Hz and 200 Hz Doppler frequencies. FromFIG. 8a, for the TU channel with f_(d)=200 Hz, the pilot-symbol-aidedand the decision-directed estimators have the same performance and therequired SNR's for 10% and 1% WER's are about 7 dB and 10 dB,respectively. However, for the TU channel with f_(d)=200 Hz, theperformance of the decision-directed estimator is degradedsignificantly, and the required SNR for a 10% WER is as large as 9.3 dBwhile it is only about 7.3 dB for the pilot-symbol-aided estimator. FIG.8b demonstrates the WER's of system for the HT channel. It shows thatthe decision-directed estimator is 1 dB better than thepilot-symbol-aided estimator for lower Doppler frequency (fd=40 Hz);however, the pilot-symbol-aided estimator is much better for higherDoppler frequency (f_(d)=200 Hz).

From the foregoing simulation for evaluating pilot-symbol-aided channelparameter estimation for OFDM systems, it appears that robustinterpolation using the 2-D FFT and IFFT, and enhanced parameterestimation can significantly improve the performance of OFDM innoise-limited wireless environments. Compared with decision-directedchannel parameter estimator, the pilot-symbol-aided estimator is highlyrobust to Doppler, even though it has a slight performance degradationfor systems with lower Doppler frequencies.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for processing an OFDM signal receivedover a wireless communication channel, said OFDM signal comprising apacket of a number N of OFDM blocks, each OFDM block comprising a numberK of signal tones, the method comprising the steps of: sequentiallyreceiving N channel-impaired OFDM blocks; computing noisy channelestimates, based on said channel-impaired blocks; arranging the noisychannel estimates into a first array having a first axis representativeof a frequency index of the noisy channel estimates and a second axisrepresentative of a time index of the noisy channel estimates;performing a first two-dimensional Fourier transform on said firstarray; multiplying the Fourier transformed first array with a secondarray representing a two-dimensional filter to thereby form a thirdarray; and performing a second two-dimensional Fourier transform on saidthird array to thereby form a fourth array comprising elementsrepresentative of an estimate of channel parameters for said wirelesscommunication channel.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thetwo-dimensional filter is a diamond shaped filter.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said step of computing the noisy channel estimates isperformed by multiplying elements of each channel-impaired OFDM blockwith corresponding reference pilot symbol values known to have beeninserted into that block upon transmission.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein said step of computing the noisy channel estimates is performedby multiplying elements of each channel-impaired OFDM block withcorresponding estimates of a demodulated signal.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein said step of computing the noisy channel estimates isperformed by multiplying elements of each channel-impaired OFDM blockwith corresponding estimates of a decoded signal.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein said step of sequentially receiving the N blocks is performedat the receiver by a plurality of antennas, each of said antennassensing N channel-impaired blocks.
 7. A method of estimating channelparameters for a wireless communication channel by transmitting a signalfrom a transmitter to a receiver, the method comprising the steps of:inserting pilot symbols at predetermined positions in a plurality ofblocks, each block comprising a plurality of data symbols representativeof a signal being transmitted; sequentially transmitting each of saidplurality of blocks over a finite number of tones, said finite number oftones being broadcast substantially simultaneously for each block;sequentially receiving a corresponding plurality of channel-impairedblocks at the receiver; computing a corresponding plurality of noisychannel estimates from said plurality of channel-impaired blocks;arranging the plurality of noisy channel estimates into a first arrayhaving a first axis representative of a frequency index of the noisychannel estimates and a second axis representative of a time index ofthe noisy channel estimates; performing a first two-dimensional Fouriertransform on said first array; multiplying the Fourier transformed firstarray with a second array representing a two-dimensional filter tothereby form a third array; and performing a second two-dimensionalFourier transform on said third array to thereby form a fourth arraycomprising elements representative of the channel parameters.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the two-dimensional filter is a diamondshaped filter.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein said step of computingthe noisy channel estimates is performed by multiplying elements of thechannel-impaired blocks with corresponding reference pilot symbol valuesknown to have been inserted into the blocks at the transmitter.
 10. Themethod of claim 7, wherein said step of computing the noisy channelestimates is performed by multiplying elements of the channel-impairedblocks with corresponding estimates of a demodulated signal.
 11. Themethod of claim 7, wherein said step of computing the noisy channelestimates is performed by multiplying elements of the channel-impairedblocks with corresponding estimates of a decoded signal.
 12. The methodof claim 7, wherein said step of sequentially receiving the blocks isperformed at the receiver by a plurality of antennas, each of saidantennas sensing channel-impaired blocks.
 13. The method of claim 7wherein the pilot symbols are inserted into a sequence of blocks suchthat, upon arranging said blocks into a 2-D array having a first axisrepresenting a frequency index and a second axis representing a timeindex for transmission of a corresponding block, the pilot symbols forma non-rectangular grid.
 14. An apparatus for processing an OFDM signalreceived over a wireless communication channel, said OFDM signalcomprising a packet of a number N of OFDM blocks, each OFDM blockcomprising a number K of signal tones, said apparatus comprising: atleast one antenna arranged to sequentially receive N channel-impairedOFDM blocks; a first multiplier configured to compute K noisy channelestimates for each of said N channel-impaired blocks, based on saidchannel-impaired blocks; a first two-dimensional transformer arranged toperform a first two-dimensional transform on the K noisy channelestimates for each of the N blocks, wherein said noisy channel estimatesare arranged into a first array having a first axis representative of afrequency index of the noisy channel estimates and a second axisrepresentative of a time index of the noisy channel estimates; a secondmultiplier configured to multiply the two-dimensional transformed firstarray with a second array representing a two-dimensional filter tothereby form a third array; and a second two-dimensional transformerarranged to perform a second two-dimensional transform on said thirdarray to thereby form a fourth array comprising elements representativeof an estimate of channel parameters for said wireless communicationchannel.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said two-dimensionalfilter is a diamond-shaped filter.
 16. The apparatus of claim 14,further comprising a switch configured to selectively provide one of twodata values to said first multiplier.
 17. The apparatus of claim 14comprising a plurality of antennas, each antenna arranged tosequentially receive N channel-impaired OFDM blocks.
 18. A diversityreceiver for receiving an OFDM signal over a wireless communicationchannel, said OFDM signal comprising a packet of a number N of OFDMblocks, each OFDM block comprising a number K of signal tones, saidreceiver comprising: a plurality of antennas, each antenna configured tosequentially receive N channel-impaired OFDM blocks which have beentransmitted over said wireless communication channel; a channelestimator configured to estimate channel parameters for the wirelesscommunication channel based on the N channel-impaired OFDM blocksreceived by each antenna, said channel estimator comprising: a firsttwo-dimensional transformer arranged to perform a first two-dimensionaltransform on a two-dimensional array of noisy channel estimates; asecond multiplier configured to multiply the output of the firsttwo-dimensional transformer with a second array representing atwo-dimensional filter to thereby form a third array; and a secondtwo-dimensional transformer arranged to perform a second two-dimensionaltransform on said third array to thereby form a fourth array comprisingelements representative of an estimate of channel parameters for saidwireless communication channel; and a diversity combiner arranged toestimate a transmitted signal based on said elements representative ofan estimate of channel parameters produced by said channel estimator andsaid N channel-impaired OFDM blocks received at each antenna.
 19. Theapparatus of claim 18, wherein said two-dimensional filter is adiamond-shaped filter.
 20. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprisinga switch configured to selectively provide one of two data values tosaid first multiplier.